Sunday 17 March 2013

Q&A 2 - Instrument monitor height

Pete Hudson wrote: When you sit the instrument monitor atop the yoke it does seem very tall. I bought a widescreen to limit the height but you almost have peer over the top of the dash to see out. Maybe all will look ok when I get the outside view sorted but did you have the same problem?

Hi Pete, I have the same problem with my instrument monitor. Because it has to sit on top of the yoke it raises the top of the MIP higher than it would normally be in most RL aircraft.

To mitigate this I removed the bezel from the monitor and cut the MIP as close to the top of it as I could. I also lowered the yoke as far as I could. I found that by sitting further back the angle of my legs allowed me to lower the bottom of the MIP quite a bit. The last thing I did was lower the exterior view monitors behind the rear of the MIP as far as possible without losing too much of the bottom of the picture.

I haven't got round to using car seats yet. If I raise the office chair I use to almost full height I can get my legs in under the MIP quite easily to use the rudder pedals, and the top of the exterior view monitors are just above my eyes. Ideally I would want to be almost looking down at them, but at least I'm looking straight ahead and not up. It's not perfect, but a pretty good compromise.

Also for the outside view would a 42" TV be any good or there a reason most people use the 3 monitor route?

I've never used a TV but I believe the resolution on a big TV would be pretty similar to a single monitor, ie. you wouldn't see any more to the left and right. The PC sees the three monitors as one super wide one with a res of 5760x1080, so it's really wide and normal height. The native resolution of a 1080p TV is only 1,920x1,080, so you're only seeing a third of the width of the image you would using three monitors, just larger. Hope that makes sense!

2 comments:

  1. Hi Dom. Interesting points about the use of a big screen TV. Like you say, the use of triple-screen is more about the width of field of view rather than simply size. That said, I've just restarted simming using a 38" TV instead of my old 26" monitor It's definitely a step up in immersion, if you can't afford or have room for a full triple-screen setup.

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  2. One way to lower things is a modification to the flight controls. I purchased a Cessna 150 yoke on Ebay, and then mated it to my CH products yoke. I cut the handle of the yoke of the shaft as close as I could to where it mated, using a rotary cutter dremel tool. I then cut a length of dowel that would just fit inside the shaft of the CH Products. I trimmed the other end to slide inside the shaft of the Cessna yoke, drilled holes and put bolts and nuts to anchor things properly. By doing this, you can move the body of the yoke further back behind the monitor and lower the monitor, thus reducing the height. The real aircraft yoke has a better feel and authentic look

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